Bad Mother Freezer – an Incredibles 2 Interview with Samuel L Jackson

Thank you to Disney for the Incredible trip to Los Angeles to cover this event!

Yes, that’s me staring over Samuel L Jackson’s shoulder. Don’t hate.

Don’t ask Samuel L. Jackson a stupid question. He’ll make a face at you. Or maybe, yes, ask him a stupid question because he’ll make a face at you. Interviewing this icon and the star of my favorite movie of all time (we’ll get to that later), was SO much fun.

I had a goal of having him say “Go the F*CK to Sleep”. That didn’t happen, but he did drop an F-Bomb during our interview. Read on to find out why.

Samuel L Jackson is not interested in Funko Pops, but he loves a good Plushie

Image: Louise of MomStart

When he walked in, we had some plushes on the table and one Frozone Pop. He wasn’t into that “Big head thing” but he gushed about the plushies and wondered why there wasn’t a Frozone one on the table.

Sorry, yo.

Image: Louise of MomStart

One thing Samuel L Jackson requires when he takes on a job is that there be a toy made of him. He got his feelings hurt on a job back in the 90s and won’t let *that* happen again.

When I did Jurassic Park, they made action figures for everyone but my character. After that, I kind of insisted on it.

He is relieved that “Incredibles 2” was finally made.

I’m relieved now! That was a lot of pressure! My feed is always full of ‘WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE ‘INCREDIBLES 2!’ like it was my decision or something. Now I feel a lot better knowing that the pressure is being relieved, people can be happy.

Samuel L Jackson cannot keep a secret, but I can’t tell you why I know that. I’d have to kill you.

What I can tell you is that Samuel L Jackson thinks ‘Incredibles 2’ was worth making.

Incredibles is one of those things where the first movie was so perfect and so awesome that you’ve got to say to yourself, ‘Can we really do something that awesome and maybe a little bit more awesome next time so that it justifies us doing a sequel?’

And I think they accomplished it. The movie is kinda awesome.

Who does Samuel L Jackson think is the best character in the movie?

Brad Bird turns out to be pretty good. He pretty much tries to imitate everyone’s voice when we’re recording. And he IS Edna, he’s the best character in the movie.

If I could be any other character in ‘Incredibles 2’, I’d be Edna. Edna’s the dopest. She’s wise, cool, dry, unaffected by the world. The world revolves around her.

As though we didn’t already know, he’s extremely versatile and takes the same approach no matter what style of acting he’s doing.

I’ve only worked once with Craig in the room. It was on the first movie and I think that’s when they decided that, no we’re not going to put these guys together again. Voice acting is like any other acting to me. You’ve just got to get in there and do it.

He’s not one of those actors who can’t see himself on screen. He actually enjoys seeing movies with himself in it. I swear, he’s my spirit animal.

When asked about a feature film starring Frozone, he replied:

I always like seeing movies with myself in them. Anything starring me is a good idea!

Really? I’d be shooting ice, not fire? I’m not hot like that? Oh I see, I see. Oh, fire is for the Black Panther guy. Old guys get to be cool, not hot. That’s a little ageism. I’m feeling a little #MeToo about that. I’d rather throw dry ice, it would burn you when you touch it.

I told him I thought he’d throw fire and he thanked me. That happened, y’all.

OK, so he DOES know how to keep a secret, but you have to threaten his life to make it happen.

When asked about Easter Eggs in ‘Incredibles 2’, his response was to look down at his shirt and pull on it a bit, then ask:

Does anyone see any red dots on my clothes? This is Disney, Marvel, all that. When you start talking about that, little red dots start showing up on your clothes. I don’t know anything!

Image: Louise of MomStart

If Samuel L Jackson could freeze any era in time, his criteria is that he be free from pain. His answer surprised me a little bit, but I totally understood why once he started explaining.

You know what, 1976 New York City. My wife and I started this marvelous journey that we were ready to conquer the world and be the best actors on the planet. We thought we were going to be Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.

It was a vibrant time in New York. There were so many of us there. It was a great time for work and comradeship. All the people we met like Morgan, Alan Greene, Denzel – everyone was there working. We all worked together, we ate together, we went to auditions together, went to the same unemployment office when we weren’t working.

Vibrant times and learning times which cemented some really great friendships. The challenge of being on stage with those people and wanting to be better. was good. It makes us who we are on screen because we had all that discipline and working together and learning to be an ensemble without outshining everyone around you.

Being there and being in that time. That would be great.

That answer opened the doors for me to ask him what advice he would give to young actors just starting out. His answer provided a lot of insight into how he is such a great actor, and it also provided me with a gift to take home to my own thespian. Samuel L Jackson is the second person in one month to give similar advice.

Do as much theatre as you can do. Fame is a drug that young people have because it seems so accessible. If you do enough online or you get enough likes or get enough eyes on you, you become famous for no reason. Or reasons that are not worth talking about.

If you’re serious about it, go to New York. Challenge yourself onstage, on Broadway, off Broadway. Work with as many different kinds of actors and directors as you can. Learn the craft – upstage, downstage, stage right, stage left. Being dominant and being submissive. On Stage

(Cue laughter)

There’s a wealth of information to be gained from working in front of real people every night and getting applause or not. You learn from that. There’s no real way to know you can do it until you hear people say it, or you’re in a theatre and you feel the energy from the audience when you’re doing something. When you make them sad you can hear them say ‘Awww” or when you make them happy they laugh, applaud, cheer, they sigh. When you feel the energy of other people, then you know what works and what doesn’t work.

Then when you get to this place, or on a screen somewhere, you don’t have to question what you do. It feels right, it works.

Despite what we think, Samuel L Jackson wishes he knew what it was like to play the best characters.

I don’t get to play the best characters, I just have fun playing the ones I get. People like selling t-shirts. I say the t-shirt lines.

Image: Louise of MomStart

He’s been dropping F-bombs since he was pretty young, but there’s a medical reason why.

It’s who I am. I have talked like that my whole life. I stuttered really badly when I was a kid and one of the mechanisms to stop the pp-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p was MOTHERFUCKER! Then I could just say what I had to say, and sort of flowed over into the rest of my life.

Don’t report Samuel L Jackson for saying the F word on Twitter. It was literally in the first tweet he ever put out, and Twitter said it’s fine.

I got reported by someone on Twitter for using that word, but Twitter said I was fine. I’ve been doing it since I got on Twitter. My first tweet had that word in it! They assured me it’s fine.

Don’t tell him to stop having an opinion.

Image: Louise of MomStart

Yeah, we’re actors but we live like everybody else in the world and are affected by the same things that affect everyone else.

When people say things like, ‘SH! We don’t need your opinion!’ I’m like ‘I gotta have one!’ I pay bills, I pay taxes, I have a right to my opinion. I’m not asking you to believe what I believe, I’m just asking you to hear what I got to say and then you can do what you want with it.

His favorite movie that he’s ever acted in is my all-time favorite movie.

The Long Kiss Goodnight is my favorite. It’s a movie that is a really underrated film. The studio didn’t quite know what to do with it because women weren’t badasses in that time and they didn’t think men wanted to see women be badasses at that time, so they didn’t know how to market that movie.

It has since gained a cult following because Geena Davis is SOOOOOOOOO awesome in that movie.

He didn’t even hesitate to answer. I totally geeked out over this one. If you’ve never seen ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’, rent it TODAY. It IS a badass movie. I’m always shocked when people have never heard of this movie because it is the dopest film. There’s a scene with a retainer and some gasoline that made a lasting impression with me.

Incredibles 2 is a super dope movie too! Scroll to the bottom to see more exclusives from the making of Incredibles and other interviews with the talent from this film.

About Summer

*You can reach Summer at summer@dirtyfloordiaries.com.* Born in Orlando, FL and raised in Juneau, Alaska; Summer prefers being outdoors hiking, skiing, or just livin' over being inside doing anything. She has a weakness for cheap red wine and good conversation and can always be counted on for a laugh. You won't find perfection here, just a big ole' mess and a few laughs. Feeling frustrated with your life? Visit The Dirty Floor Diaries and you'll leave feeling just a smidge better - Guaranteed or your visit's free.